Received: 26 March 2018
DOI: 10.1002/mop.31472
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A compact superformula based
ultra-wideband antenna shape
with two notched bands
F. Mouhouche | A. Azrar |
M. Dehmas | K. Djafri
Laboratory of Signal and Systems, Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, University M’Hamed BOUGUARA of Boumerdes, Algeria
Correspondence
A. Azrar, Laboratory of Signal and Systems, Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineering, University M’Hamed BOUGUARA of Boumerdes,
Algeria.
Email: a.azrar@univ-boumerdes.dz
Abstract
In this paper, a compact superformula ultra-wideband
(UWB) monopole antenna with dual band notches is pro-
posed. The developed structure achieves UWB perfor-
mance as well as a compact size of 20 × 26 × 1.62 mm3.
Furthermore, to avoid interferences with WiMAX and sat-
ellite communication systems, dual notched band is
obtained by engraving two co-directional triangular split
ring defects on the radiating element. The simulated and
measured results show that the proposed antenna has an
impedance bandwidth extending from 3.05 to 20 GHz
with dual notched bands at [5.15-5.68 GHz], and
[7.15-7.65 GHz] used in WiMAX and satellite communi-
cation, respectively. The proposed design realizes omnidi-
rectional radiation pattern in H-plane, and a dipole-like
pattern in E-plane. The antenna exhibits an acceptable
gain in the whole UWB range except at notched bands.
KEYWORDS
dual band rejection, metamaterial, superformula shape, UWB antenna,
WiMAX
1 | INTRODUCTION
The ultra-wideband (UWB) communication system has a
major interest from both academic and industrial researchers
Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2018;1–5. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mop
due to several crucial features such as wide operational
bandwidth, low profile, high data transmission rate at low
power and resilience to multipath interference. The Federal
Communications Commission (FCC), has reserved in 2002
the frequency band between 3.1 GHz and 10.6 GHz to
UWB applications.1 The monopole antenna is an attractive
candidate for UWB system due to its characteristics which
are compact, wider bandwidth and low-cost. Accordingly,
UWB monopole antennas based on different shapes have
been developed and reported in literature. The most used
shapes are circular, triangular and square.2 Besides, more
complicated shapes have been used such as fractal,3
umbrella shaped,4 leaf-shaped,5 and Ψ-shaped.6 However,
the developed antenna designs present the disadvantage of
relatively large size and limited bandwidth.
More flexible geometries can be generated using the
super-formula mathematical expression. This super-formula
proposed by Johan Gielis in 2003 is a generalization of the
mathematical expression describing the super-ellipse.7 It is
expressed in terms of six parameters which when properly
selected produce complex curves and shapes found in nature.
These shapes can be exploited to design UWB patch
antennas.8,9
In this paper, a compact super-formula shaped UWB
antenna with dual band rejection characteristics is proposed.
By adequately choosing the super-formula parameters, an
UWB structure has been obtained. The antenna provides an
ultra-wide impedance bandwidth extending from 3.05 GHz
to 20 GHz. Furthermore, two co-directional triangular split
ring defects are introduced on the radiating patch to get the
dual band notched at WiMAX and X-band satellite
communication.
2 | ANTENNA DESIGN
Figure 1 shows the graphical layout of the proposed antenna.
The radiating patch contour (without defects) is obtained
using the super-formula equation




 1

cos ðmφÞ
n2
sin ðmφÞ
n3 − n1


RðφÞ ¼



: ð1Þ
a
+
b

Expressed in polar coordinates, where R denotes the
radius and φ the angle.7 The six parameters n1, n2, n3, m, a,
and b are used to setup the patch shape. The parameters n1,
n2, and n3 are positive real numbers. Each of the parameters
© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1
2 MOUHOUCHE ET AL.

FIGURE 1 Geometry of the proposed antenna [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

TABLE 1 Dimensions of the proposed antenna (unit: mm)

Parameter L W Lg Wf Ws Ls L1 L2 T
Dimension 26 20 7.50 3 3.30 2.30 9.50 8.50 0.50
Parameter L3 L4 A1 A2 A3 A4 S1 S2
Dimension 4.47 4.15 6.50 5.50 3.83 4.19 5.30 2.70

a and b are chosen to be 1 for the patch symmetry. The whereas n2 and n3 determine whether the shape is inscribed
parameter m determines the number of points, corners, sec- or circumscribed in the unit circle. These parameters are
tors, or hollows fixed on the shape and their spacing, properly chosen to obtain the proposed shape and they are

FIGURE 3 Photograph of the antenna prototype: (A) front view

FIGURE 2 Simulated VSWR with and without defects [Color and (B) bottom view [Color figure can be viewed at
figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] wileyonlinelibrary.com]
MOUHOUCHE ET AL.
FIGURE 4 Measured and simulated VSWR [Color figure can be
viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
FIGURE 5 Radiation pattern of the proposed design in E-plane and H-plane at (A) 4 GHz, (B) 12 GHz and (C) 16 GHz [Color figure can
be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
3
given as a = b = 1, m = 2, n1 = 1, n2 = 4, and n3 = 16.
After that, the dimensions of the patch are tuned to optimize
the antenna bandwidth.
3 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The proposed antenna is printed on the FR-4 substrate hav-
ing a dielectric permittivity of 4.4, a thickness of 1.6 mm
and a loss tangent of 0.017. The antenna geometrical dimen-
sions labeled in Figure 1 are summarized in Table 1. The
antenna is fed by 50 Ω microstrip-line and the simulations
are carried out using CST software. The simulation results
for the VSWR of the proposed antenna with and without
defects are shown in Figure 2.
As illustrated in Figure 2, the antenna without defects
presents an ultra-wide bandwidth defined for VSWR <2
extending from 3.05 GHz to 20 GHz which corresponds to a
4 MOUHOUCHE ET AL.

VSWR are shown together in Figure 4. From the graph, the

FIGURE 6 Gain vs frequency of the antenna with and without
defects [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
significant percent bandwidth evaluated to 147.07%. After
that, two defects were inserted on the patch in the form co-
directional triangular split rings to provide frequency bands
rejection. Their dimensions are adjusted so that two notches
are obtained in the WiMAX and X satellite communication
bands.
The notch frequency (fnotch) is empirically related to the
complementary single SRR dimensions generating it as
follows:
c A superformula based UWB antenna shape with dual band
fnotch ≈ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ,
ðLinner + Louter Þ: εeff
where c is the speed of light in free space and εeff the
effective dielectric constant approximated to εr/2. For the
outer SRR, Linner and Louter are respectively the inner and
outer edge dimensions of the big defect, ie, Linner = L1 + 2
× L3 and Louter = L2 + 2 × L4. The notch frequency fixed
by the small complementary SRR is obtained by replacing in
Equation (2) L1, L2, and L3 by A1, A2, and A3, respec-
tively.Using the above procedure, two frequency band
notches are obtained around the WiMAX (5.15 GHz-
5.68 GHz) for big complementary SRR and X-band satellite
communication (7.15 GHz-7.65 GHz) bands for small
complementary SRR.
To validate the obtained results, the antenna is fabricated
as illustrated in Figure 3. The measured and the simulated
measured and the simulated VSWR show a good agreement.
The far zone fields of the proposed antenna at three dis-
tinct frequencies (4 GHz, 12 GHz, and 16 GHz) in H-plane
and E-plane (ϕ = 0 and ϕ = 90 planes) are shown in
Figure 5. The radiation pattern exhibits two lobes in the upper
and the lower hemispheres in the E-plane and it is nearly
omnidirectional in the H-plane at the first resonant frequency.
At higher frequencies, the patterns squashed in some direc-
tions and hump in some other directions in the E-plane,
whereas in the H-plane, they are almost omnidirectional.
Although the dimensions of the proposed antenna are com-
pact, its gain is within acceptable range as illustrated in
Figure 6. In fact, this plot shows that both antenna configura-
tions, with and without defects, exhibit gains increasing with the
frequency in the range [2-6 dB] and, as expected, it decreases
considerably at the notch bands for the antenna with defects.
Finally, a comparison in terms of bandwidth and com-
pactness between the proposed antenna with some published
structures using the same substrate is summarized in Table 2
which illustrates the significant improvements made by the
developed structures as well as in frequency bandwidth and
miniaturization.
4 | CONCLUSION
ð2Þ
notch characteristics is proposed and investigated. To pre-
vent interferences with WiMAX and X-band satellite com-
munication, two co-directional triangular split ring
metamaterials are introduced on the radiating element to reject
their frequency bands. The simulated and measured return
losses show a good agreement, the bandwidth is about
16.95 GHz with band rejection at 5.15 GHz-5.68 GHz and
7.15 GHz-7.65 GHz. The developed antenna exhibits nearly
stable radiation pattern over the operating frequency range
and achieves acceptable gain. Finally, as compared to reported
structures, the proposed antenna achieves significant improve-
ments in terms of bandwidth and miniaturization.
OR C ID
F. Mouhouche http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3904-2577

TABLE 2 Comparison of the proposed antenna other reported antennas RE F E R E N CE S

Antenna Frequency Notched [1] Washington D. First Report and Order Revision of Part 15 of the
Reference size (mm2) band (GHz) bands (GHz)
commission’s Rule Regarding Ultra-Wideband Transmission Sys-
[2] 26 × 27 2.60-10.80 3.0-3.9, 5.0-5.9
tem FCC 02-48. Federal Communications Commission; 2002.
[10] 18 × 35 2.80-11.10 5.2, 5.5
[2] Pratap Singh A, Khanna R, Singh H. UWB antenna with dual
[11] 25 × 38 2.90-15.00 3.5, 5.5 notched band for WiMAX and WLAN applications. Microw Opt
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[13] 32 × 33 2.00-11.00 3.3-3.8, 5.2-5.7 [3] Tripathi S, Mohan A, Yadav S. A compact fractal UWB antenna
Proposed 20 × 26 3.05-20 5.15-5.68, with reconfigurable band notch functions. Microw Opt Technol
design 7.15-7.65
Lett. 2016;58:509-514.
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How to cite this article: Mouhouche F, Azrar A,
Dehmas M, Djafri K. A compact superformula based
ultra-wideband antenna shape with two notched
bands. Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2018;1–5. https://
doi.org/10.1002/mop.31472